I, Hogarth

The great eighteenth century portraitist comes to life in this "gritty, bawdy and funny" rags to riches novel told in the voice of the artist himself ( The New York Times). William Hogarth was London's artist par excellence, and his work--especially his satirical series of "modern moral subjects"--supplies the most enduring vision of the ebullience, enjoyments, and social iniquities of the eighteenth century. And in I, Hogarth, he tells a ripping good yarn. From a childhood spent in a debtor's prison to his death in the arms of his wife, Hogarth recounts the incredible story of how he maneuvered his way into the household of prominent artist Sir James Thornhill, and from there to become one of England's best portrait painters. Through his marriage to Jane Thornhill, his fight for the Copyright Act, his unfortunate dip into politics, and his untimely death, "the voice in which Dean's Hogarth tells his own story is rich and persuasive . . . Like stepping into a Hogarth painting" ( The New York Times). "A brilliant exercise in imagination and storytelling." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)